Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	eye_n	lord_n	wait_v	2,901	5	9.3473	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79552	Saint Chrysostome his Parænesis, or Admonition wherein hee recalls Theodorus the fallen. Or generally an exhortation for desperate sinners. / Translated by the Lord Viscount Grandison prisoner in the Tower.; Parænesis. English	John Chrysostum, Saint, d. 407.; Grandison, William Villiers, Viscount, 1614-1643.	1654 (1654)	Wing C3980; Thomason E1531_2; ESTC R208923	51,851	141

very Wildernesse wild and desolate stript and naked rob'd and spoil'd of all thy riches and sumptuous Ornaments which were once so miraculously and divinely eminent in thy pious life that they were above humane faith these I say are ravish'd from thee and more to augment our sorrow wee see thee ruinated like a desert full of dangers which no body undertakes to keep Thou hast no Vertue left to bar the doors against assaulting temptations but lyest open to every corruption and wicked determination of thy fancy Whether it be pride or lust or drunkennesse or avarice what sin soever the Devill commands to storme thee there is nothing that defends the breach nothing that guards thy unman'd soule Yet once how much of heaven hadst thou in thee whilst like it the purity of thy thoughts was inaccessible to all manner of ill Mee thinks I speak wonders not to be believ'd by those who see thee in this thy forlorne and desperate condition which makes me pray lament and mourn continually that I may see thee return again to thy former integrity and piety which may perhaps seem to humane apprehension impossible but all things are easie in the hands of God For he it is that lifteth the beggar from the dust and exalteth the needy from the Dunghill that he may sit with Princes even with the Princes of his people Hee it is that maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children Ps. 113. On this infinite and unsearchable love of our God to us build thou thy hopes and thou wilt find an impossibility a strange incapacity within thy self to despair at any time grace still working in thee to change thy heart into better and better desires For if the Devill had the power to pluck thee from so eminent a top and glory of Vertue into this Abysse of wickednesse Much more easily can our Omnipotent God raise thee up again restore thee to thy former liberty and honor and and not onely set thee free from this base captivity but make thy happinesse greater then ever yet it was Onely I beseech thee resolutely to break all snares that shall be lay'd in the way of thy return Let not thy hopes which are so full of certainty be cut off by any destructive fear or timorous perswasion lest those punishments light on thee which are due onely to the desperately wicked For neither the number nor the greatnesse of our sins does absolutely condemn us to a condition irrecoverable But resolv'd settlednesse and an intollerable composednesse in impious waies are the sure manifest signes of a soul so fall'n that it shall never rise again Wherefore Solomon does not speak generally of every man who transgresseth Pro. 18. but names that wicked man who when he comes into the depth of evill contemns his mercy It is onely a wicked purpose never to leave sin that plunges men into this dangerous Gulfe of despair and iniquity from whence they can never so much as look back and much more difficultly return For the deceiving weights of wickednesse lie like a heavy Collar on the necke of the soul and forcing our eyes upon the Earth forbids them to look up to our Lord that made them Know then it is the part of a generous and truly daring Christian spirit not to endure the Tyrants yoake valiantly to combate and destroy those officious guards his watchfull malice sits over us And with the Prophet to acknowledge our obedience there onely where it is onely due saying with him As the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us for we are exceedingly fill'd with contempt Ps. 123. These are divine exhortations these are the doctrines of the most heavenly Philosophy we are fill'd with contempt we are shaken with infinite violent stormes of sad events Yet shall not this debar us from looking up to our God and imploring his assistance Nay till our Lord has granted our Petitions we must put on the confidence of importunate beggars and not let our prayers cease til our requests are granted This is the true Character of a pious daring soul not to be baffled from his hopes by the violence of ill successe not to start out of the way or goe back because as yet he has not found the expected issue of his prayers but to endure to the last till the Lord have mercy on him according to the precept and example of the Prophet David CHAP. II. The Devills endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the Foundation of our eternall happinesse The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill THE wily subtilty of Satan aimes at nothing more then to inveigle us in a Labyrinth of despair still feeding our naturall tottering inclinations with change and variety of doubts and once unsetled we are his certain prey for irresolution excludes us from our expectations in Heaven and relyance upon the benignity of our most mercifull God and Father it violently and too insensibly drives us from our hopes our surest Anchors By it wee lose the very essence of our lives the guide which leads us to God the Pilot which steers our forlorne and shipwrack'd soules into the Haven of Salvation For resolution and a constant hope never fail of assurance in the end by hope saies the word wee shall be sav'd that will to the last preserve us Hope is a stronge and Golden Chain let down to us from Heaven taking fast hold on it wee learn to subdue our soules most desperate rebellions Which our benign Lord finding us sure link'd to it has promis'd to raise and lift us by it above all the dangerous billowes of this present miserable life Whilst he who through idlenesse neglects to make his hold sure to this golden Anchor sinks and is certain to drown and perish in the deeps of his own wickednesse Which Satan that subtle Fox so well know's that he then makes his Hel-Harvest when he sees us laden with sin and overprest with the weight of our guiltiness this is the time hee so diligently watches for then falls he on us and presses our declinings with arguments of the immensity of our offences and deceives us with his cunning aggravations Then suggests he to our soules horror and despair in their extreames as there were no salvation left to us and the doors of mercy were lock'd against our cryes for ever And once in this dejected and base low condition how prone and precipitate is our descent into Hel forc'd still violently downwards by unresisted desperation having weakly lost our hold on hope that Golden Chain wee sink perpetually in the deepes both of sin and misery Thus is it with thee Theodorus who hast cast off thy obedience and subjection to a meek and mercifull Lord quite

III. Gods mercy to the greatest sinners an argument against despair THE mercies of our Lord so infinitely exceed our transgressions that meditating on them they cannot but greatly consolate our drooping spirits and arme us with courage against those temptations we ought strongly to resist lest they overcome our trust and confidence in God I mean those stupid apprehensions of the unpardonable immensity of our own guilt as if God were not able to forgive us our sins being so great and so many that to our imaginations they exceed the saving promises of his mercy Oh let us take heed of such desperate perswasions as these oh let us be careful that such thoughts as these do not quash and annihilate our hopes let not the Devill delude us with an opinion that our Lord is mercifull indeed but extends that goodnesse onely to small offenders to those onely who have provok'd him but with a few and those small faults For suppose a man justly branded with all the markes of those infamies and shames which are due to the greatest reprobates One who had committed all those wicked acts which most certainly unrepented fail not to shut the gates of Heaven against them who transgresse so highly in them And withall we must grant this person to be no stranger to the truth but to have been one of Christs Church Whatsoever was the cause of his fall Whatsoever the inveterate malice of the Tempter had chang'd him to be either whoremaster or adulterer nay perhaps Sodomite Were he theef drunkard or common calumniator one who had hug'd all these sinns with appetite and delight nay had made it his serious study to contrive his ends and hellish satisfaction in them For my part I would not be Author of despair to such a wretch as this no though he had continued in them many years For it is impious blasphemy to reflect upon the anger of God as if he were therefore displeas'd that we might be hardned for then wee justly should relinquish our hopes if we were assur'd the flames of his wrath set on ●●●e by so many sinns were not to be extinguish'd with the tears of true repentance But wee must look with more believing eyes on his mercy and admire the excellency of his justice and his clemency who in his punishments is quite free from passions and perturbations And any one but willfully blind offenders may plainly see that our Lord has no delight or contentment in his revenge but takes exceeding pleasure in his love and tenderness which is infinitely intent on our good Be thou therefore of good courage confidently and undauntedly rely upon the hopes of thy restauration to grace and happinesse in spite of all the machinations of the Devill Let him not deceive thee and possesse thee with so horrid an opinion as that God should at all delight in the punishment of sinners For he is a most indulgent Father carefully fond of us and directing all his actions towards us for our good even in the depth of our malice against him unwiling is he and loath to see the encrease of our perversenesse But of his owne Fatherly compassion keeps us off from contemning and despising his mercy If any one voluntarily of his own free motion forsakes the light who can accuse the light for that mans darknesse does not he want the benefit of that light through his own folly and willfullnesse So he that disdains submissively to adhere to the omnipotent power of God and to live in the light of grace which illuminates all true believers suffers not by the goodnesse of that power which is the originall Fountain of all blessings but the unrulinesse of of his own rashnesse and stupidity which so willfully brought him into his own ruin and destruction Our mercifull God sometimes lets us see the rod to frighten us but draws it back and puts it up again that his children may be sensible of his aversnesse to revenge and of his infinite propensity to allure and attract them to himself So a discreet Physitian afflicts not or troubles himself at the raging distempers of a man frantick but is himself the patient when he workes the cure He treats him gently he courts him into his own health and though the mad man fly in his very face hee uses meeknesse with art and skill and unmov'd endeavours to palliate the violence of his disease though perhaps he be justly enough incens'd to leave off the cure And as the distemper'd man recovers his senses the Physitian encreases his joy and prosecutes his intended cure having never return'd peevishnesse for fury but laying aside all self-respect applyed himself wholly to the good of the lunatick So our Lord when we arrive at the extreamest madnesse and rage in sinning takes no revenge of us even in the height of that fury but like our carefull Physitian most charitably applyes his mercies which are his medicines to cure our madnesse not any thing reflecting on those wild passions we provoke him with This is a truth to be justified by the testimonies of all right minded Christians who daily find the effects of his clemency and the records of holy writ are full of examples teaching us the verity of it CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a coherence to the preceding Chapter WAs there ever any one so great a Monster as Nebuchadnezzar that King of the Babylonians And yet I beleeve the records of all ages cannot produce the man to whom God reveal'd himselfe more apparently both in his power and his mercies Observe his story how at first he honors the Prophet of the Lord even to the adoring him commanding sacrifice to be offer'd to him as God Then see how at last he returnes to his owne old pride which puffs him up to believe that he his self is the God to be only worshipp'd and who exalts not him above God is cast into the fiery Furnace Behold the infinite mercie and love of our Lord who forsakes not this strange beast for such was he rather to be esteemed then a man But still followes and pursues him with his favours in his most irrationall rebellions calls him back with profers of grace and loving invitations to repentance First shewing him his omnipotency by the miracle in the fiery Furnace then by the strange vision which the King saw and Daniel interpreted Wonders able to move a Rock could not mollifie his harder soul To these the Prophet joynes his pathetick counsell Wherefore O King let my counsell be acceptable unto thee and redeem thy sins by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Dan. 27. What saist thou thou opinator of thy owne wisdome and happinesse Canst thou return yet canst thou repent after this thy strange fall Is thy diseast so desperate thou darest not hope for a recovery Can no wisdome regulate the passions of a mind so troubled The dumb-struck King

But because that he repented that he trusted to the hopes at his return of his Fathers forgivenesse see the change of his base and abject condition he is thus restor'd to his Fathers favour cloath'd in a rich garment and better treated then his brother who had never transgrest For saies the brother So many years have I serv'd thee and never transgrest thy commands and yet thou never gavest me a Kid that I might make merry with my friends but now this thy Son is returned who has devour'd thy substance thou hast killed the fatted Calfe Out of this parable and the precedent discourse may be collected the great efficacie of repentance CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our souls from the filth of sin which must by no means be slighted or neglected since in this World wee cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and quickly vanishing That we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagu'd in torments HAving before our eyes so famous and eminent examples of Gods inviting benignity to stirre us up to repentance with such ample assurances of his mercies to the truly penitent Our duty is not to waver as uncertain of his assisting grace but resolutely to attempt the encounter when we are assur'd of such irresistible aide to second us as the power and favour of our omnipotent Lord Do not his mercifull calls summon us Let us go on with courage Let us say We will go to our Father c. like that prodigall For if we approach our selves but one step towards him our God will draw us nearer so far is he from refusing us But we are a generation that willfully depart from the Lord and on set purpose forsake his waies designing our selves to perdition Yet saies our Lord Jer. 23. 23 I am a God at hand and not a God a far off and again he speaks by the Prophet do not your sins separate you and make this division betwixt you and me Are they our sins which hinder us are they the blocks which lie in our way to eternall happinesse Let us remove them by the force of prayer and humiliation that we may approach nearer to our Lord Set before our eyes Saint Pauls treating the Corinthian and apply to this present discourse 1 Cor. 5. A Corinthian an eminent person had committed such a sin as the like is hardly named amongst the very Heathens He was of the faith of Christs family some believe he was a Priest What follow'd this fall of his Did St. Paul cast him off as a reprobate from the hopes of salvation not at all For in his first and second Epistles to the Corinthians he expostulates with them because they had not received him into repentance ver. 7. 4. In all which treating with them he manifestly declar'd that there was no sin so heinous but God has appointed a conditionall pardon for it that the diseases and distempers of our souls are to be cur'd by pennance their proper medicine and purgation ver. 5. Deliver such a one saies he to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be sav'd in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ This was the Apostles language before his repentance in the time he stood excommunicated but after his repentance saies Saint Paul To him that is such a one this rebuke sufficeth that is given of many 2 Cor. 6. Wherefore he wrote to them to comfort encourage him lest Satan should get an advantage over him In like manner the intire Nation of Galatia after they had embrac'd the faith after miracles wrought amongst them after they had overcome many temptations against their belief in Christ Jesus at length fell into infidelity yet recover'd their fall He therefore that giveth you the spirit saith he and worketh miracles amongst you Gal. 3. 5. Certainly they had many temptations whom he so teaches ver. 4. Have you suffer'd so many things in vain yet in vain These people after a great encreate of a strong faith in our Lord committed a heynous offence they alienated themselves from Christ of which he seems to speak to them Behold I Paul tell you that if you be circumcis'd Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5. 2. And again who ever of you are justified by the Law are faln from grace ver. 4. From so dangerous a fall how lovingly and friendly he strives to preserve them My little children whom I travell withall again untill Christ be formed in you Gal. 4. 19. Here he declares that in our worst estate Christ may be renew'd and form'd in us For he will not the death of a sinner but rather that he may turn from his wickednesse and live Eze. 18. 12. Return then to our Lord most dearly beloved Theodorus and performe his will that would so have it For this end he created us for this we were made to bestow on us the glory of eternity to give us the Kingdome of Heaven not to fling us into Hell or cast us into those flames which were indeed made for the Devill and not for us Our Saviour declares this to us when he saies to those on his right hand Come you blessed of my Father Possesse the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the World Mat. 25. but to those on his left hand Depart you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared hee does not say for you but for the Devill and his Angels ver. 41. You see then Hell was not purposely made for us but for the Devill and his Angells And that Heaven was appointed for us from the beginning of the World Shall we then render our selves incapable of infinite honors and felicities by eternall providence and favour determined us and not make our selves ready to enter the Bride-Chamber with the Bridegroom This preparation is onely possible in this World here it is that wee must put on our wedding Garments that we must dresse our selves in the robes of contrition and repentance and though we may be often disordered in our atttire and contract again the filth and deformity of our sinne there is hope left as long as the waters of repentance may yet cleanse us but if we neglect it to day wee know not how late it may be to morrow the end and terme of our life is forbid the curiosity of our knowledge and when wee depart hence it will be too late to expect any good though wee repent with all the passionate humility that can be imagin'd it will not profit us though we gnash our teeth howle horridly and fill that Hell we are in with our complaints till they reach the Heaven we complain to wee shall not be the better so much water as would cool our tongues Luke 16. 16. Remember Abrahams answer to the rich man there is a great Chaos betwixt you and us Let us